Outlander Book Club: Lord John and the Haunted Soldier Part 1B breakdown

Lord John Grey sees a soldier in a uniform he doesn’t recognize in Lord John and the Haunted Soldier Part 1B. Is it possible that he’s seeing a ghost?

That’s something another soldier believes. Apparently, it’s a fallen soldier from Crefeld, and John starts to think about the lieutenant who was killed in battle due to the gun.

However, John tries to keep the focus on the possibility of the cannons being defective. Is it possible that the gunpowder was purposely created wrong?

Breaking down Lord John and the Haunted Soldier Part 1A

After leaving Jones and Gormley, Lord John Grey initially heads to the Foundry. Believing himself to be in the way, he walks out and heads to see Tom Byrd. John was supposed to have dinner with his stepfather, but it’s too late for that now. That relieves John as it means he doesn’t have to talk about Percy.

As he’s leaving, John sees a soldier in an old-fashioned, unfamiliar uniform across the square. The soldier is gone after John is accosted by another soldier. That second one shares that this was the Arsenal Ghost, and John thinks about whether the ghost had Philip Lister’s face.

John pushes he thoughts aside and heads to meet Tom at Bell Street. They head to a pub with good food, although questionable lodgings, and then John thinks about the interrogation. He wants to figure out how the events of Crefeld may have been his fault, even accidentally, so that he can refute any accusations.

He knows that the gun crew may have unintentionally loaded two charges or that a defective found was put in and the crew didn’t realize when it didn’t go off. However, John doesn’t think there was evidence of either of them. The fact that Edgar’s name was raised and Twelvetrees’s antagonistic ways play on John’s mind.

When John gets back to London, he heads to the Beefsteak Club, where he heads to the “Hermit’s Corner.” This is a group of three chairs facing windows. Anyone who sits here makes it clear they don’t want to be disturbed. If only Harry Quarry would accept that. Harry wants to know about John’s interrogation, and there is a discussion of the Ghost at the Arsenal.

Harry does have some important information, though. Twelvetrees is out to get Hal, but he would be satisfied if John resigned his commission. John is angry about this. It turns out as well that John had accused Marchmont’s cousin of treason, and that cousin was currently in the Tower. Were all of the commissioners out to get John? No.

It also turns out that John’s gun wasn’t the only one to explode. Eight others had. Of course, the government doesn’t want that to get out, so the focus is on getting the word out that they had been sabotaged. John now puts it all together and realizes that Edgar is the connection, although John can’t figure out why Edgar would sabotage the gunpowder, so John decides to go speak with Edgar.

While on the way to see Edgar, John gets a letter from Mr. Lister of Sussex, who is Philip’s father. John still had Lister’s sword, and he guessed that Mr. Lister would like it. Mr. Lister would also like to know if Philip had any last words. John wasn’t going to repeat the profanity Philip actually uttered, and simply said that Philip died bravely and in a way that would make the Listers proud. Except, the Listers didn’t approve of the career, so that’s not quite true.

It turned out that Philip was supposed to marry the minister’s daughter until he showed interest in joining the military. When the minister broke off the engagement, Philip broke into the minster’s house and ran off with the daughter. The Listers had been kicked out of the congregation after this. Mr. Lister goes on to say that the girl may have been pregnant, and he would like the baby if so.

John agrees to look into it, which Tom thinks is insane. However, the village the Listers live in is close to Edgar. Plus, he would like to take his mind off his own troubles by looking into other people’s.

And so the real story begins.

Could this chapter be used in a TV series adaptation?

It does seem like a bit of a weird thing for John to look into. Honestly, I wouldn’t expect this short story to be used if there was a Lord John Grey series adapted. The only thing that I could see being important is the stuff with Twelvetrees. That could be used within another story as some sort of side episode.

We then wouldn’t need all of this chapter. We wouldn’t need the Lister part of the story, and the focus could be on Harry disrupting John’s peace at The Beefsteak and sharing the connections of the men in the inquisition to Hal and John.

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